


A piece at a time

by Unaflor



Category: The Folk of the Air - Holly Black
Genre: F/M, Family, Fluff, Oral Sex, Post-Book 3: The Queen of Nothing, Power Play
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-25
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:55:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21559690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unaflor/pseuds/Unaflor
Summary: Piece by piece, Cardan and Jude let go of their armour. Four vignettes.
Relationships: Jude Duarte/Cardan Greenbriar
Comments: 7
Kudos: 180





	A piece at a time

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers of The Queen of nothing.

1.

She watches him sleeping and she can’t help thinking how much their relationship has changed, how much her own feelings have changed. The old Jude wouldn’t have missed this chance to take advantage over Cardan. The old Jude would have exploited how vulnerable he looked there and then. High Queen Jude thinks, instead, that there are no traces of wickedness in this sleeping Cardan, that he looks even kind, impossibly beautiful. 

She wonders what it would feel like if she touched him, if she just pulled her hand from under the duvet to put one finger gently on his cheek. 

“If you’re scheming my murder, let me get drunk first. I might even share some ideas with you” he says opening his eyes and making her jump. She doesn’t like to be found off guard and she doesn’t like to think about killing him anymore.

“Tell me more” she says instead, leaning on her side. He copies her so they are facing each other, pillows between them.

“Well…” he says, pulling her hair out of her face with two of his fingers. That only gesture seems to last forever and Jude feels suddenly disarmed by him, by this lame trick of his, gentle and frustrating. “What about you bound me to your royal bed and you make me believe you desire no other but me, and you show me how much?”

“How is that going to kill you?” she says, laughing despite herself, mortified at the idea that he can see in her face the revolution she is feeling inside of her skin: red, liquid warmth invading her every surface. 

“When you’re done you can stab me with one of those knives I’m sure you carry with you, my Queen” he says simply, the way only people for whom death is not a promise can talk about dying.

She wants to reply something playful, something clever, but she can’t come up with anything and the only thing she would like to do is to pardon his life on the condition that he tells her who is it that he desires the most, but she fears she won’t like the answer or that he might not want to give her one. Instead she says that the Living Council might be waiting and he simply rolls his eyes, _it’s our job to make them wait, remember?_ But he knows it’s not enough to stop her from running away from him. He tries, anyway, grabbing her wrist without pulling, looking at her the way Oak looks at her when he wants ice-cream and he knows the chances are he is not going to get any. She smiles. The way his hair is everything but perfect, the lazy smile on his face, the way he looks at her, all of it makes her reckless. It feels like jumping from a high roof when she bends over him.

“I desire no other but you” she whispers to his ear, her tongue tracing a slow path to his neck. When she looks at him his eyes are shining with a new intensity and suddenly he moves fast, so fast she founds they have exchanged places and she is now below him.

  
“Don’t move” he warns her, looking straight into her eyes. He is both serious and playful and she doesn’t want to move ever again. He gets up from the bed and walks towards the doors. She can hear him talking to the guards. “The High Queen will cut off the heads of whoever dares to disturb us for the rest of the morning. Be aware”

As he closes the door he can see her in the same position she was when he left her, but laughing, and he thinks he could get drunk of it.

2.

The snow makes it all shiny and wet, and Cardan looks around him as people goes by and can’t help to feel that the way mortals dress is ridiculous and makes him feel trapped. His black trousers are way too tight, made of a weird material he doesn't like, and he has a big coat on he does not need. He does like pockets, though. They are tiny and useless and he wonders what people can put in them. Small things, mostly. Little bottles full of poison, perhaps, and possibly some herbs. And their _phomes_ , those things mortals carry around everywhere and, according to Oak, can be used to communicate with other people and to see images or to turn lights or to play games. 

There is so much going on he can’t keep track of everything, and he doesn’t understand much of what is around him: the smells, the colours, the noises. He makes an effort not to make a face. Instead, he smirks at Jude, who's looking at him wearily. 

"Come on" she says, her gloved hand finding his naked one. She attempts to smile, then she frowns, and finally says "It'll be over soon, I promise"

"It's fine. I like this" he says, thinking of the way she tried to hide a smile when they approached the market or how she doesn’t want to leave him alone, and not thinking of the clothes he's wearing nor the crowd. She looks surprised and he squeezes her fingers in his hand. She nods and gives him a brief smile that turns into an alarmed face when Oak approaches them running among the people, they all moving out of his way without any apparent reason. His face is covered in chocolate, he's bringing something with him and the fact that he is not in danger sinks slowly in her stomach, because being safe is a new territory for her.

"Candy floss" he tells Cardan, putting a pink and ugly cloud trapped in a transparent bag in his hand, the one he is holding Jude's with. And so he lets her go and she gets carried away by Oak in the same direction he came from, her face a mixture of surprise and helplessness, so uncommon on her that Cardan finds it amusing. 

He walks slowly towards them, people moving to let him pass as the High King of Elfhame that he is, not that they know it nor they are aware of their moving, but they do it all the same and the words to say that he doesn’t enjoy it won’t leave his throat.

Mortals are so weird. Around him the market stalls shine brightly offering candy in different shapes and colours, round balls Vivienne has called Christmas baubles, cheap and ugly jewellery. He walks past it all, trying to find his wife in that chaos that smells as caramelized chestnuts, still holding the pink candy floss in one hand, unsure of what to do with it. Then he sees her: she's not wearing her beanie anymore. In its place there are two red antlers attached to her hair on a green base like Cardan has never seen before. When she sees him she attempts to take them off, but Oak won't let her. 

"Look!" He says instead, talking to Cardan. "She looks something like us now" he says, clearly excited. Since he can't lie, Cardan doesn't say anything, and since Jude face is fierce, he tries to strangle his urge to laugh. Instead he mocks her:

"She can only wish to look half as handsome as me"

Jude rolls her eyes and before she can say something, everyone can hear Vivienne shouting _there you are!_ , followed by Heather, who's wearing a Santa hat with a tinkle bell at the end. "Hot chocolate" she says, passing warm cups to Oak and Jude while Heather hands one to Cardan.

"Thank you" says Jude easily, putting both her hands around her cup to get them warm. 

"Yeah…Thank you" repeats Cardan, awkwardly. Vivienne only laughs, a small _don't worry about it_ getting lost in the noise of other people shouting. 

By the time the lights of the Christmas tree are going to be turned on, everyone grows quiet. And when in the centre of the square tiny yellow lights start shining, everyone cheers and so does Jude. Oak has both his arms extended towards the dark sky in celebration, but Cardan doesn't see that. All he sees is her, smiling at the stupid tree, and when he has already started planning making every tree in Elfhame shine in infinite colours till the end of times, she turns her head towards him, the warmest smile he has ever seen her smiling, and she mouths _thank you_ towards him. 

3.  
No one calls it ‘Locke’s state’ anymore, but that is exactly what Cardan thinks of it when he arrives, thinking of how different were things not that long ago, and not missing it for a second. 

Jude does not wait until the carriage stops moving to jump out, and he wouldn’t dream of stopping her from running inside, entering unannounced like she would do in the palace or in a house on fire, just because she feels she belongs in both: home and danger and extreme situations. 

Cardan follows slowly, not willing to come inside so soon, and when he finally crosses the entrance, a long, terrible scream welcomes him in. He raises a brow and one servant hurries to inform His Majesty of the latest news. His wife is in the main room, and if he does not come in, it’s because he is not sure he belongs.

As the High King of Elfhame, Cardan does not worry himself with such unpleasant thinking: he welcomes himself everywhere and he expects his people to celebrate it and be grateful for his delightful presence. But this is different. This is a space he will only come in if Jude and Taryn ask him to and not otherwise.

So he waits, awkwardly and unused to waiting, until Jude opens the door, her hair a mess and her eyes shiny. Behind her he can see Vivienne holding a bundle, the tiniest of them all and Cardan feels slightly curious about it.

“Come and say hello to your nephew” says Taryn from the bed. She looks tired, her eyes looking sore and red. _His nephew_ , he thinks, confused. Surely not. 

“ _We_ don’t have the rest of eternity to wait for Your Majesty” Jude says, pushing him slightly. His tail touches the back of her legs for a second, and then he approaches Vivienne with caution. The baby is tiny and when he opens his eyes Cardan meets Locke’s eyes once again. His ears are pointy and his hair is Taryn’s and Jude’s. 

He feels Jude on his side, looking at the baby like she had never seen anything more magical, a feeling he can relate to when he looks at her.

“Uncle Cardan” she whispers and he lets the words sink slowly inside of his chest. Then, he allows himself to smile his brightest smile. 

4.

She has been thinking about this for so long she can’t even remember when it started. She thought about it, she imagined it, she fantasized. Until she knew she was ready. And then she waited for an opportunity, for the lights to be nearly off, for her to be brave in a way she never had to be before, that she didn’t know how to be. 

She likes what she sees in him when he looks at her without her clothes on, that mix of surprise and recognition, something warm and melting, the beginning of a storm or a fire. She doesn’t allow herself to think about it too much. He has seen her naked so many times now, but somehow it doesn’t get any easier. She feels exposed and human, and she thinks the only way to overcome that feeling is by embracing it, but she doesn’t know how. 

He is not moving, waiting for her to come to him, a foolish smile in his face, his tail lashing the air, uneasy, undoing the image of relaxation he is trying to portray. Once in front of him, she gets to her knees, slowly, placing her hands on his thighs. She places a small kiss on the inside of his leg. Knowing that she doesn’t have to do this, that she is doing it because she wants to, doesn’t make it less scary. 

“You might do with me whatever you like” she says. She had said it before, but this time it does not sound like a joke, it does not sound like she’s taking the piss. This time it sounds like someone pull it out straight from his dreams and he knows she has no idea what it feels like. She thinks she can see it, though, in his eyes, in the way his tail moves. But there is no way for her to know what this means to him.

“Jude…” he says, his voice raw and rough. 

“Please” she says instead. And then again, _please,_ and she has done that before, protected by her own laughter, wearing it like a shield. Without it, now, she is scared he will reject her. 

“Why?” he asks, simply, because he needs to know, and this she does not expect. 

“Because you want to” she says simply, knowing that there is something more. She never thought herself to be a coward. “Because I want to” she adds and his smile right there is a mischief of a promise. He likes to be feared, she thinks, but she is not scared anymore.

“Very well then” he says slowly. “But you’ll have to beg for it” he says, and she lets as much air as she can take invade her lungs before repeating _please_ one more time. “Please what, Jude?” he says, still standing in front of her, not touching her, his distance abysmal and terrible.

“Please do with me what you want” she says, determined to play the game as the only way not to lose herself. She glances at him, biting the beginning of a smile, breathless at the sight of him: his eyes shining dangerously in dark desire and _that_ smile she would burn kingdoms to the ground for. He bends towards her on the floor.

“Remember that you asked for it” he whisper to her ear, pushing her with his own body until her back is touching the cold floor and he is in top of her, holding her hands with his own on top of her head and kissing her softly on a shoulder, while his legs get hers open. She has never felt that way before, so helpless and naked and raw. And instead of fear, she is expectant of what’s to come, finding soon enough that this is a game she wouldn’t mind playing again and again, a game that involves a lot of begging and teasing until she believes he’s going to drive her crazy, and it has his most childish, delightful laughter in it. 

“Oh, Cardan, please” she begs, raw honesty coming out of her and this time fighting to get her hands free of him. He holds them tight against her body and smiles at her.

“Good girls get rewards and bad girls get punishments” he says, licking the inside of her thighs with the very tip of his tongue, making her back arch. She can not move, she can not close her legs and Cardan is undoing her a kiss at a time. She wonders if this is not the punishment itself, and of course it’s delicious, and of course she loves it, and he kisses her again and she moans, helpless and shamelessly.

_Please. Please._

“Tell me what you want” he demands, his hands on hers being replaced by thick branches and his fingers running through her body ever so slowly, making her laugh slightly because it’s ticklish, and then making her forget any words or how to form them. His fingers reach her legs and expose her even more to him and this must be what losing oneself might feel like. She does not feel ashamed. She does not know how she feels, what she knows is this: she doesn’t want to stop feeling what she is feeling, whatever it is, not now, not ever. “Tell. Me. What. You. Want” he says slowly, helping himself with one of his arms to put his face in front of hers and look at her very eyes while he is disarming her with the help of his other hand, the one that he kept between her legs.

“Don’t stop. Please don’t stop” she begs, and he smiles, biting her ear, his fingers getting away from her body and she screaming in pure frustration, her heavy breathing becoming more irregular. And then again, his fingers on her while his other hand gets rid of his trousers.

  
“Lie to me” he says.

“I hate you” she replies, her voice raw and rough and her back arching again, her eyes fixed on him, on his eyes that mirror her.

At the end of it, they look at each other and see themselves naked. Not naked as in without clothes, but proper _naked_ , facing each other with nothing to hide and nowhere to hide it. And despite what Jude imagined, it doesn't feel like being vulnerable or weak. She feels oddly empowered, and it feels good.


End file.
